Against my better judgment I took a look at the recent update of the despicable Southern Poverty Law Center’s “hate map.” One of the groups I hadn’t noticed before, listed as “anti-LGBT,” was the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM). I was unfamiliar with it so I looked it up; maybe it was a kook outfit like the Westboro “Baptist” “Church.” After all, just because the SPLC calls something a “hate group” doesn’t mean it’s not.

You won’t be surprised to learn that C-FAM is a mainstream conservative group, devoted to keeping an eye on the antics of the U.N. and related transnational activist groups. Its board of directors and board of patrons include, among others, names familiar to many NRO readers: John O’Sullivan, Kate O’Beirne, Wesley Smith, Hadley Arkes, Mary Ellen Bork, Nick Eberstadt, Robbie George, Leonard Leo. Does anyone think these people would be involved with a group comparable to the “United Society of Aryan Skinheads,” as the SPLC claims?

Ordinarily, the rantings of a scurrilous bunch like the SPLC would be beneath the notice of polite society. But just this week the Pentagon confirmed that it will continue to use this repugnant outfit as a training resource. In addition, the SPLC conducts “training” sessions for law-enforcement agencies around the country, agencies that would never think of attending events hosted by, for instance, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, another mainstream organization labeled a “hate group” because it opposes the SPLC’s leftist, open-borders political objectives.

The SPLC’s loathsome fabrications pollute the occasional useful activity. For instance, the group recently published a report on the exploitative nature of of the J-1 visa’s “cultural exchange” programs, which are just legal ways of importing cheap, controllable labor. (My colleague Jerry Kammer did an extensive report on this two years ago.) But as they say, when you add a cup of wine to a barrel of sewage you still just have a barrel of sewage.

The upshot for the Pentagon and law-enforcement groups: Any association with the SPLC is beyond the pale.